Alfred Bendixen is Professor of English at Texas A & M University, and Founder and Executive Director of the American Literature Association. His books include Haunted Women (1985), an edition of the composite novel, The Whole Family (1986), The Amber Gods and Other Stories by Harriet Prescott Spofford (1989), Edith Wharton: New Critical Essays (1992), A Companion to the American Short Story (co-edited with James Nagel, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing (co-edited with Judith Hamera, 2009).